Transcript: Sen. Chuck Schumer on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan," Oct. 5, 2025
The following is the transcript of the interview with Sen. Chuck Schumer that aired on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" on Oct. 5, 2025.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Welcome back to Face The Nation. Senator Chuck Schumer is the top Democrat on the other side of the Capitol and he joins us now from New York City. Good morning to you, leader. I want to pick up on something the Speaker of the House was pointing to. He wants this fight to be about illegals, as he said. And I want to be specific here, because we know from our research that there is no federal money that goes towards health care tax credits for undocumented immigrants in this country. The federal government doesn't fund health insurance for the undocumented. But it is also true that states like yours, New York, does provide health care for people who are in this country illegally. And their argument seems to be the money here is fungible, and bottom line is, it comes out of the federal pocket. Do you want to respond to that?
SENATOR CHUCK SCHUMER: You know, they don't want to, Johnson doesn't want to discuss the real issue, the health care crisis facing the American people. So he puts up all these fake lies to try and divert attention. It's his standard operation. He just is concerned with the politics. Every independent agency that looks at this says Johnson's claim is false. And just as you said, Margaret, no, zero federal dollars can go to undocumented immigrants through Medicare, through Medicaid, through ACA. And so we ought to be talking about the real issue here, which is that we have a health care crisis in America caused by the Republicans. They've caught, they barreled us towards a shutdown because they don't want to deal with that crisis. Plain and simple.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Well, let's talk about the shutdown in a moment. In terms of health care, where you've taken us, in terms of the messaging, Democrats, as I understand it, are looking for an extension of those Obamacare tax credit. I believe you'd like them permanently. You heard the speaker say we can talk about that after the government is reopened, perhaps not permanently. But do you hear any kind of opening here for a negotiation whatsoever?
SENATOR SCHUMER: Well, right now, not. Look, Johnson's not serious about this. He sent his, all his congressmen home last week and home this week. How are you going to negotiate? --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Well he says the job is in the Senate. With you and leader Thune --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- And he's, well, no you need, no, you actually need Johnson if you're going to negotiate any agreement. You need Johnson, Thune, Trump, Schumer and Jeffries. And the reason he sent them home is because he's more interested in protecting the Epstein files than protecting the American people from the health care crisis. We've been trying for months and months to sit down with them and have a serious conversation addressing America's health care needs. And they've refused and refused and refused. And just on your show and on other shows, when they asked him, well, will you do it in January. He says, it's starting in January. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Yeah. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- He says, no, we'll have a conversation. Well, you know what, later means never. And we've tried 45 days and 45 days and 45 days from March on. We asked them to vote on it three times. The Republicans in the Senate, they voted no three times. So we need to solve this crisis. Look --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- That was a permanent extension. The bill that I think you're referring to is Senator Shaheen. It was a permanent extension. It wasn't the, you know --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- He, Johnson has not committed --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Compromise that some Republicans have proposed. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- Yeah. Margaret, Johnson has not committed to any extension and he won't until the American people force him to. And it doesn't, and by the way, the crisis doesn't start in January. Two days ago, starting October 1, millions of Americans are getting notices that their health care premiums are dramatically increasing. If you're a 55 year old couple, and you pay, make $80,000, you know how much your premiums will go up if we don't extend it? It will go up something like $25,000. The average American will pay $900 more. How do Americans who are struggling, sitting at the table Friday night figuring out how to pay the bills, how the heck can they get such an increase? Democrats are simple. We want to extend it and so they won't have to pay that increase.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Okay. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- And Johnson does not want to do it. He's just not serious about it, as exemplified by him sending the House home for two weeks. You need to be here to negotiate.
MARGARET BRENNAN: All right, you're using word extend versus making permanent, just making clear there. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- Look. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- And then the number we see is the average increase of about $1,000 in premium payments for most households that will go into effect.
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- Right, right. Yeah and it's horrible. And, it's horrible. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- On the reopening everything conversation, sir, though. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- Yes. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- I mean, do you trust leader Thune? And when you look at just your numbers here, three senators already crossed over to vote with Republicans on the short-term funding deal. Are you concerned about more defections?
SENATOR SCHUMER: Look, it's a Republican shutdown because they've refused to talk with us. Johnson, I saw him mentioned that we did it 13 times when I was majority leader. That's true. You know why? In every case, we sat down and talked with the Republicans and there was a give and take, and then both sides didn't get everything they wanted, but we got it done. They have refused to talk to us even once. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Well, Thune, Thune told Fox that there were ongoing, ongoing conversations. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- And Jeffries and I have been trying to get them to talk to us, for, they tried to get us to talk to them for, we've tried to talk to them for months and months and months. And they said no. The American people know that they're in charge. Republican President, Republican Senate, Republican House. That they have a responsibility to govern, which means sit down and talk with us so we can address these needs.
MARGARET BRENNAN: But back to the question of defections. Leader Thune was on another network, on Fox, and he said that there are conversations with Democrats who want to find an off ramp here. Is he having conversations with Democrats other than you? Are you sure you can't, will you have defections?
SENATOR SCHUMER: Yeah. Margaret. I've encouraged my Democratic members to sit and talk to Republicans. It's always good when Democrats and Republicans talk to each other, but two points. First, in those conversations, the Republicans offered nothing. And, but second, the only way this will ultimately be solved is if five people sit together in a room and solve it. And they are the president, who also doesn't seem serious about this. You know he's putting out his memes and his things with the grim reaper and all of that stuff. He's playing golf. Johnson's not serious, and so we've got to sit down, the five of us. That's the way to solve this problem. But when Democrats talk to Republicans, it's a good thing. And I've encouraged my Democrats to do it, but they've offered us nothing. No change.
MARGARET BRENNAN: Have you tried calling President Trump? He seems to take phone calls. Directly. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- Well you know, we sat, we tried to get President Trump to sit down with us weeks ago, long before the shutdown day started. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- So no. Okay. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- He said, he said yes. He said, no. Johnson told him to say no. We sat down, you know, the day before, and he wasn't serious. He put these red hats on the table, and he's joking around. And honestly, in the meeting, Margaret, I got the feeling he didn't even know what was happening. That the crisis was impending. That people would pay such a --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Yeah. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- He once said they're going to pay all that. That would be bad for me. And so the court here is the American people. The American people are hearing what's happening, and they are demanding that we address this crisis. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Yeah. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- They are demanding we sit down together and do it. It's just logical. They are, say that, you know, in your survey that you put out --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Yeah. --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- They say that 75% people feel Trump isn't doing enough. Another survey by the Washington Post showed that not only do 80% of the American people want us to extend these credits, but 55% of Trump voters --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Well our, our --
SENATOR SCHUMER: -- The American people are right now talking to their senators, you know, talking to their congressmen. They're telling them, get this done. We want to get it done. --
MARGARET BRENNAN: -- Our CBS polling also shows that neither side is getting good grades on any of this. Leader, we're going to have to leave that here for this moment. We'll be right back.